Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 129
 Excellent - compact and quiet February 22, 2010
Mark P. (British Isles)
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
I bought one of these to support an external 750GB RAID set up (3 drives bodged together, in effect) that stores all of our personal data - pictures, music, documents, etc. and quickly changed my mind... in a good way!
The drive is small and neat, and automatically appears on the Mac OSX desktop with a getting started guide - a nice touch for non-technical users. I formatted the drive (choosing to zero out the data - to make sure the whole disk was OK - which took 10 hours! A normal format is a matter of minutes, but doesn't check the whole drive) and backed up our data to it.
The copy process was relatively quick (pretty typical USB2.0 to USB2.0 transfer speeds; some 500GB in about 6 hours) - and was very quiet, particularly when compared to the existing drives.
The base has a blue light on each side which flashes when the drive is accessed - not too obtrusive, but it would be nice to be able to turn it down or off.
In any case, after a day or so of use, I decided to get a second drive - to replace the old setup. I've got the two drives side-by-side, set up to "mirror" each other (using the Mac OS RAID functionality in Disk Utility); this isn't a backup solution as such - but it provides protection if (WHEN!) a drive fails, as the data is duplicated. If one drive breaks down, then I can just replace it and carry on without any loss.
On top of this, the drives come with a 3 year warranty from Hitachi, so between that, the data mirroring, and the Time Machine automatic backup process, I'm pretty well covered. Unless the building burns down, in which case I'd need offsite storage too. Hmm - maybe I should buy another to leave in a drawer at work?
All in all, a great purchase so far - time will tell how reliable the disk is, and how good Hitachi's warranty process is - and at this price, an absolute steal; it seems that every time I buy a new hard disk, they've doubled in capacity and halved in price... not that I'm complaining :)
Worth it February 11, 2010
L. Vores
61 out of 63 found this review helpful
When this product arrived [a day earlier then expected], its came with an unecassary amount of packaging.
This product itself looks great though, small and compact with grip on the base to avoid it falling off your computer base.
This device works wonders.
It doesn't have that annoying humming sounds like most and has a pleasant soft blue light.
This product itself is easy on the eyes and is quick at tranferring all my files from my computer onto it.
I highly recommend it, especially if your running low on computer space like i was. It quick, simple and does the job!
Function and form... at last January 23, 2010
Elektrikgypsy (Prague)
138 out of 145 found this review helpful
While the 'passport' size drives (of which I've owned many) are really starting to catch on to the idea that consumers *expect* the drive itself to work, and that the purchasing decision rests on price, facility and form, the bigger drives have been slow to get the message. Aesthetically challenged at best, and I've had two 3.5" drives out of the six I've bought simply not work. Well this is the first time I've delighted at the price, but actually made 'out loud' joyful noises as I've taken this Hitachi beastie out of the box. LOL indeed, and who really does?
The picture doesn't actually do the object justice. It's compact, not at all 'blocky', relatively light, rigid and when you take the protective film off the plastic end pieces they shine piano black to make the design look distinctly classy. I'm pretty sure the main casing is aluminium; certainly there's no trace of flimsiness. The upright design just looks right - nice small footprint and businesslike enough to be in full view. Seriously, I'm going to sell off my other two terabyte drives and buy two more of these to sit alongside this one. Why did it take so long to arrive at a product like this?!
I can't comment on the onboard software; although there was one app for PC users and one for Mac, I always strip drives out straight away and Mac format them. When I did this I noticed two things: first was that I only seemed to lose less than 1gb of available storage. Second, it turns out that the other two drives connected - the internal drive and a Lacie portable - both had Hitachi innards too, and given their sterling service so far, I feel assured about this new one.
First thing after formatting was to transfer the music on the Lacie onto the Hitachi. 320gb took just over 3 hours, passed without a hitch, and all seems well. The drive was pretty quiet, and remained very cool to the touch throughout (more than can be said for the MacBook during the process). There's a light along the sides of the unit that glows in a subdued way when connected and flashes when the disk is reading and writing. It's bright enough to see in daylight but doesn't blind you and light the entire bloody room at night, like the little Lacie.
And that's it - what else could you want? Functions perfectly, great design, great price. More facilities? Maybe a firewire or second USB connection if it didn't push the price up much. But the new improved USB will be out soon, and I'm sure that will be incorporated on all the new drives that come out then. If Hitachi are reading this - well done. How about a simple, discrete system for connecting multiple drives without tons of spaghetti cable? Crack that one out and I'll buy another five of these, I promise.
Excellent Hard Drive February 5, 2010
Mr. Steve Mortimer (England)
33 out of 35 found this review helpful
I agree with everything the previous reviewer said.Hitachi have set the mould here with a sleek and good looking unit which I think compliments my work space.It performs faultlessly is quiet in operation and apart from the low level blue LED flashing at the base whilst working you wouldn't know it was on.I didn't bother with the included applications, It arrives formatted to FAT 32 so I did a quick format to NTFS and that was that.A great price for what I think is one of the best units on the market.
Very easy to use March 15, 2010
K. Richardson (Leeds, Yorkshire United Kingdom)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Having never done a backup before , I read the other reviews & as they looked good I decided to buy .
It was very easy to hook up to the computer & install & once the back up started that was it .
100GB in approx. 50 minutes , it was very quiet in use & the flashing bluelight made it easy to see when it had finished.
The size of the product is good & pleasing to the eye. Impressed !
Showing reviews 1-5 of 129
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